the center for environmental and life sciencescollege of science and mathematics montclair state...

The Center for Environmental and Life Sciences

College of Science and Mathematics

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CONTENTS

THE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND LIFE SCIENCES

ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTER

RESEARCH AT MONTCLAIR STATE UNIVERSITY

LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH

LIFE SCIENCES LABORATORIES

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORIES

OTHER LABORATORIES

INCUBATORS

LECTURE AND SEMINAR ROOMS

THE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

On the cover: The Center for Environmental and Life Sciences forms the eastern edge of the Science Quad. This page: The east façade.

College of Science and Mathematics Montclair State University

Center for Environmental and Life Sciences 1 White Paper

Position Paper for The Center for Environmental and Life Sciences

Montclair State University

Introduction The College of Science and Mathematics (CSAM) at Montclair State University (MSU) is constructing a 100,000-square-foot research facility to create a transdisciplinary, collaborative facility for faculty and student research with a focus on pharmaceutical, environmental, and sustainability sciences.

The Center for Environmental and Life Sciences (CELS) will reflect the needs of the state and help solidify and facilitate relationships with industry through partnerships and incubator laboratories that permit collaborative research on forward-looking initiatives.

Project Cost $55,000,000

Timeline Move-in: September 2015

The Center for Environmental and Life Sciences

Mission The mission of the Center for Environmental and Life Sciences is to create a new, transdisciplinary structure for ongoing and new research. The facility is being designed specifically to allow the historic “silos” of the sciences to come down. With New Jersey remaining a critical nucleus for the pharmaceutical industry, and with a preponderance of environmental issues facing the state and the nation, CELS will seek forward-looking initiatives to help foment new directions and solutions in the sciences and concurrently promote through research and joint ventures new directions to support and stimulate the economy.

Vision Montclair State is positioning itself to increase its reputation as a regional leader in applied research for pharmaceutical chemistry as well as for sustainable development and environmental management. CELS will be driven by the active research programs generated by CSAM faculty and graduate students in analytical biology, chemistry, and environmental studies, with strong support in computational science and mathematics. CELS will promote collaborative research across traditional disciplines through shared facilities and incubator laboratories that encourage interaction with regional industry.

Montclair State University College of Science and Mathematics

White Paper 2 Center for Environmental and Life Sciences

Unique Configuration

The laboratory configuration will promote three special features in terms of intellectual energy and physical design:

1. Interdisciplinarity—imperative when studying and managing interactions in the life sciences and between human development and natural ecosystems. There is a well-accepted approach to emerging sciences that tomorrow’s solutions will be found at the interstices of the disciplines—this is the primary rationale for CELS being a model to promote transdisciplinary studies.

2. Collaboration among faculty and students through shared lab clusters, combined wet/dry spaces, common equipment usage, in-lab break-out spaces, student “homes” within the research community space, and comfortable communication spaces.

3. Future growth by balancing fixed casework with an open, flexible, and modular lab/bench design that anticipates rapidly changing technology. To insure the highest level of modern and productive research, all faculty research space will be re-evaluated every third year. Productivity will be measured in terms of publications, grants, presentations, and student activity.

These features are critical to ensuring high-impact science research. Further the building will promote enhanced relationships that will foster discovery, help to leverage research and development, stimulate the pipeline to industry, and promote new business incubators.

Externally funded, high-quality research presently occurring across pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry, geochemistry, geodynamics, ecology, and social science will make full use of the facility.

CELS will be a center of excellence for the New York metropolitan region.

Facility Overview CELS will be a 100,000-square-foot LEED® Silver–certified building, whose design development is led by the S/L/A/M Collaborative, a national architectural firm with strong experience in designing science research centers. The building will comprise a comprehensive array of laboratories, seminar rooms, classrooms, and other facilities that will enable collaborative transdisciplinary research in the pharmaceutical life sciences and environmental sciences. It will join three existing science buildings around a “learning and discovery landscape” to give science research a high-visibility position on the campus.



The ground floor will be devoted to a state-of-the-art electron microscopy suite, a geographic information systems laboratory, existing and new CSAM centers and institutes, the facility’s primary lecture hall, and its largest seminar room. The ground floor atrium and lobby will house high-level video capabilities allowing visitors to share in the excitement of ongoing research—often in real time from our research laboratories.

The second floor has four major teaching laboratories adjacent to two seminar rooms and administrative offices. These laboratories will house students from environmental studies, a growing and critical discipline for our rising generation.

The environmental research laboratories will be concentrated on the building’s third floor and will consist of four major research laboratories connected by open support areas designed to house shared equipment and major infrastructure, promoting strong collaboration. In addition and to support the transdisciplinary focus, a computational research laboratory will be adjacent to the “wet” laboratories and will focus on informatics, genomics, and modeling.

Life sciences and pharmaceutical science laboratories will be concentrated on the fourth floor and mirror the third floor’s plan of four major research laboratories connected by open support areas designed to enhance shared studies. The fourth floor will also house a series of laboratories designed to be highly flexible and will be the home of various environmental and pharmaceutical start-up companies (incubators).

The building will have a “green” roof above the second floor that will be used as a study site and retreat. Green roofs are encouraged by LEED as an approach to cool the building and better retain “gray” water.



Need for More Scientists/Science Education in the U.S.

At a point well into the 21st century, it is clear that the United States is not keeping up with China, India, and several other countries in the preparation of a new generation of scientists. Innumerable government and academic reports bemoan the slow pace in creating and retaining new scientists. These same reports speak to the less-than-best preparation of these budding scientists. In part we lack sufficient facilities, in both size and quality. In addition, all too often we ask our science students to perform in a manner that is dated with rote memorization, stagnant approaches to discovery, and little access to the most modern facilities. CELS is designed to counter this trend.

Organization of the Center

Life Sciences Laboratories

Housed on the fourth floor of CELS, the life sciences configuration will house pharmaceutical and medicinal research, environmental forensics, genomics, and serve as home to rotating biomedical/pharmaceutical and environmental incubators.

Life sciences research within CELS will run the gamut from studies on cellular disease mechanisms to the cellular uptake of contaminants in impacted environments. Programs in environmental forensics will help track trace pollutants, help in historic documentation of brown field issues, and extend our abilities to localize hydrocarbon sources. The flexibility of the CELS laboratories and construction that reinforces interdisciplinary studies will ease research in the transdisciplinary fields of bioinformatics and genomics.

Environmental Laboratories

Housed on the third floor of CELS, the environmental laboratories are aimed at addressing serious New Jersey environmental needs, exacerbated by urbanization and industrialization. The environmental laboratories support the University’s strategic and persistent commitment to serving science, the State of New Jersey, and the greater region. The facility will:

• Help meet critical research space needs • Facilitate MSU’s continued expansion of its research agenda in

environmental sustainability science (led by highly productive and creative researchers within the PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies, Passaic River Institute, and Center for Environmental Management and Analysis)

• Invigorate growth in related doctoral/Master’s programs (the first being the state’s only research-intensive PhD program in Environmental Management)



By fostering research collaborations among faculty and graduate students from science, mathematics, and other fields, the environmental labs will expand ongoing discovery, applications development, and advanced training. This will take place at the intersections of geochemistry, geodynamics, ecology, environmental modeling, and policy. Such activities are essential in the study and management of interactions between nature and society.

Constructing and infusing life into a new research-focused building is consistent with the University’s sustained strategy to energize overall research in the sciences and become a leading environmental research and support center. This facility will significantly increase available space for science research, reflecting a decade of steady and tremendous growth in scholarly output by faculty and graduate students.

Centers and Institutes

CSAM’s centers and institutes—specialized units devoted to particular areas of research and outreach—are housed on the first floor.

Sokol Institute for Pharmaceutical Life Sciences

Established by a generous bequest by Herman ’37 and Margaret ’38 Sokol, the Sokol Institute of Pharmaceutical Life Sciences promotes and supports a diverse array of transdisciplinary research programs that impact human health. The Institute also strives to bring a global perspective to its research with the study of disease mechanisms and therapeutic approaches for parasitic and other diseases. The Institute also creates an environment where new academic programs and research opportunities are available to the benefit of our students and industry with state-of-the-art training in diverse fields relevant to the pharmaceutical sciences.

The 2007 HealthCare Institute of New Jersey report notes that New Jersey’s higher educational institutions produce relatively few students with advanced degrees in health-related scientific disciplines relevant to industry. To this end, the Institute has been instrumental in the launch of a new MS program in pharmaceutical biochemistry at Montclair State University. This highly successful and unique program provides theoretical and hands-on training in areas such as biochemical pharmacology, biomolecular screening technologies, and medicinal chemistry, providing students with an overview of the entire drug discovery process.

The Institute strives to develop strong research ties with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry and is expanding its laboratory infrastructure to assist business incubators in exploring and developing new products and technologies. A recent collaborative program established with the Celgene Corporation in the global health arena is but one example of this.



PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies

The PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies is a partnership between MSU and energy producer PSEG. Based on a major contribution from PSEG, the Institute is a nucleus for broad discussions, symposia, research, and outreach on the emerging field of sustainability science—a science that blends ecology, economy, energy, and the environment.

Passaic River Institute

The Passaic River Institute (PRI) is the focal point in New Jersey for all issues related to this historic and critical river. As one of the most polluted urban rivers, the Passaic River is at the heart of a tremendous debate in terms of restoration and reclamation. The PRI created and pursues research opportunities to better understand the entire watershed. The Institute is also a resource for the community and runs summer environmental camps to bring urban children into the environment and garner a better understanding and appreciation of sustainability needs.

Research at Montclair State University

Transdisciplinary Research: A New Paradigm

The notion of transdisciplinary research in the sciences, especially in the environmental management arena, is as much pragmatic as philosophical. Building strong connections and shared research spaces among and within various disciplines is critical to our theoretical understanding of the world around us and our ability to generate new effective solutions to multifaceted problems. This is especially true when Earth, a strongly interconnected system of natural and human behaviors, is the subject and object of the research.

Research Agenda Seventy-five new faculty members with active research portfolios in specialties consistent with planned programs and regional demand have been recruited to CSAM in the last 10 years—accounting for a net increase of 34 percent in total faculty lines and 65 percent new faculty.



Since 2005, research productivity has boomed: • External funding has grown from $2.3 million to $4.4 million

with research grants awarded by NOAA, NSF, NASA, EPA, NIH, DOE, ONR, and USDA.

• In the 2009 academic year CSAM faculty and students published almost 200 peer-reviewed articles in many of the top journals.

• Collaborations have increased between CSAM faculty researchers and colleagues with joint ventures spanning Antarctica and Argentina to Thailand and China.

• Six centers and institutes within the College have been founded, three of special note for CELS are in the pharmaceutical, environmental, and sustainability sciences: the Sokol Institute for Pharmaceutical Life Sciences, the new PSEG Institute for Sustainability Studies (the only one of its kind in the state), and the Passaic River Institute. All will have a new home in CELS facilities.

With state-of-the-art facilities, research faculty and students will have new, unbridled opportunities to expand their research, grow their research teams, and compete for new funding initiatives previously inhibited by our lack of sufficient and critical modern laboratory space.

Life Sciences Research

Transdisciplinarity in a Dynamic Research Community

The critical advances in scientific knowledge will take place at the boundaries of disciplines. As we move from disciplinary to interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary sciences, CELS will be well prepared infrastructurally to meet the needs of science’s future. Bringing scientists from different disciplines together in a flexible research environment will promote synergies and opportunities that could otherwise have been missed. Students working in these labs will benefit from the lively nature of blending disciplines and emerge as scientists with strong depth in the life sciences (molecular biology, biochemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, etc.) and complementary knowledge and skills in contiguous disciplines (information technology, physics, etc.). These are the scientists who will lead tomorrow, in both academia and industry.

Industry and Government Relationships

CSAM has existing relationships with numerous industries that have a science basis. These include many pharmaceutical companies and environmental consultancies. In addition various members of CSAM sit on important New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection science and environment advisory standing committees and commissions including the Water Quality and Quantity, Ecological



Processes, and Climate and Atmospheric Sciences committees, and the Passaic River Basin Flood Commission.

Graduate Research Expansion

As our research programs have grown, so too have our relevant programs for student development. The PhD in Environmental Management is unique in the region and has quickly grown to over 25 students. These students are among the most productive on campus and publish on a regular basis (in fact, publications are required to obtain their degree). A recently installed MS in Pharmaceutical Biochemistry has proven popular among some of our most competitive students. The MS in Molecular Biology is among our largest graduate programs and produces a regular flow of students heading into roles as life science research scientists.



Life Sciences Laboratories

The laboratories for life sciences research reside on the fourth floor and are described below.

Biodiversity/ Ecology Laboratory

The biodiversity/ecology group engages in research aimed at elucidating the importance, protection, and status of biodiversity and ecology in terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Ecosystem function and services of biodiversity, economic benefits of biodiversity, costs of biodiversity loss, and ecosystem degradation and remediation are being explored. The ultimate goal is to promote the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems through education, training, and research.

Natural Products Laboratory

The natural products collaboration is focused on studying the properties of compounds that occur naturally in various plants and organisms such as green tea, algae, and others, using approaches from microbiology, virology, biochemistry, and chemistry. The discovery of novel substances with antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer activities is the aim of this research. New compounds will be isolated from their natural sources, chemically characterized, and examined in a variety of assays and experiments to determine how they affect bacteria, viruses, and cell cultures. New compounds will be studied on a molecular level to examine their mechanism of action.



Sokol Institute Laboratory

The Sokol Institute supports a variety of interdisciplinary research efforts including the development of drugs for treating parasitic disease, new computational approaches for virtual drug screening, a new computational approach to identify new uses of existing drugs to treat infectious disease, the design of nanocarrier-based novel drug delivery systems for breast cancer therapy, and computational approaches for assessing clinical outcomes in obesity trials. Modern pharmaceutical research is generally a transdisciplinary effort bringing together scientists from varied disciplines such as medicinal chemistry, biotechnology, materials science, computational science, etc. The Institute’s Fellows Program promotes such research by providing direct monetary support to Montclair State faculty from separate disciplines collaborating on a common research goal.

Medicinal Chemistry Laboratory

The interdisciplinary medicinal chemistry research team is developing a detailed understanding of the chemistry that underlies the beneficial effects of particular medicinal compounds used in treating disease. Studies include how enzymes speed up chemical reactions in the human body, focusing on those enzymes that are important targets of pharmaceutical inhibitors (drugs). Efforts are focused on understanding the forces that dictate binding between a small molecule and its protein partner, thus revealing quantitative structure activity relationships between proteins and their ligands. Novel approaches will be developed to predict the binding between small molecules and proteins. This work includes both experimental and computational approaches to research that is fundamental to drug discovery and development.

Environmental Research

Transdisciplinarity in Environmental Research

Knowledge through research will only be enhanced in studying environment and society, the NRC Board on Sustainable Development suggests, if the research approach becomes broadly based (as opposed to highly focused), problem driven (instead of discipline specific), and localized (not only global).

This is the domain of sustainability science: an interconnected community of academic and professional fields with their vast body of knowledge and methodologies. Within these connected spaces, researchers and broad constituencies engage in formulating questions, analyzing data, testing strategies, and implementing solutions. Their interest is to reveal “the fundamental character of interactions between nature and society,” and to manage if not expand society’s capacity to sustain such interactions. If we are not looking at the junctions between disciplines then we run the threat of ignoring or overlooking the synergistic power of this emerging domain—transdisciplinarity.



A Dynamic Research Community

The environmental laboratories will be built on this concept, in terms of both research content and physical design. Facilities for environmental research will emphasize shared and open spaces, communal equipment usage, and mutable research clusters.

With these new labs, the University will change how science research is conducted. The extension here is to catalyze true research collaborations between and among faculty members and graduate students around significant research questions—collaborations to be cultivated in a physical setting that transcends attributes like stagnant, rigid, opaque, closed, or discrete. This, in essence, is the making of a dynamic research community and in fact is a model discovered some years back by industries with an R&D focus.

Environmental Research Strategy

The choice of environmental research as a strategic priority within CSAM and the focus for environmental laboratories has been informed by the growing tension between New Jersey’s urban and natural ecosystems and the pressing need for research to inform policy, as well as the University’s ambitious determination to make “the creation and application of new knowledge” within environmental management and sustainability sciences one of its hallmark qualities.

New Jersey is a remarkable “laboratory” in and of itself in terms of environmental study opportunities. Within our state boundaries we find pristine forests, streams, and upland meadows, estuaries and coastal waters that retain high biodiversity but face occasional “dead zones” of low oxygen, some of the most highly impacted rivers and bays, and the most densely populated urban regions in the country. The environmental research strategy that will form the backbone of our CELS laboratories is focused on environmental impact and global sustainability. With research topics ranging from the heavy metals found in the sediments of Newark Bay and the Passaic River to the melting of the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica, CELS will house scientists with expertise and deep research programs to help answer some of the most critical environmental issues facing our planet today.

Institutional Context

Regional environmental needs and the emergence of sustainability science as a strong transdisciplinary endeavor frame the research agenda within CSAM. With full University backing, the College has shown unreserved dedication to the highest quality in research. Environmental laboratories represent the next phase in the strategic expansion of graduate programs and research in the sciences.



Graduate Research Expansion

The Department of Earth and Environmental Studies six years ago launched the University’s first doctoral program in the sciences. One of only a handful in the nation, this research-intensive, applied, truly transdisciplinary PhD in Environmental Management has doubled in size since launch (28 doctoral students, 14 fully funded) and will serve 50 at a time at full capacity. Planned PhD programs in computational science, molecular ecology, and applied mathematics will strengthen research in sustainability science and are complemented by new research-based Master’s programs, the five-year BS/MS, and research-oriented certificate programs across environmental sciences (Geosciences, Geographic Information Science, Coastal Ecology, Environmental Forensics, and Molecular Biology). Since 1999, the number of CSAM graduate students rose by 43 percent to 384.



Environmental Laboratories

The laboratories for environmental research reside on the third floor and are described below.

Environmental Forensics Laboratory

The environmental forensics interdisciplinary group investigates substances in the environment and the source of these materials. Environmental forensics is a new field that is developing rapidly with new legal mechanisms and regulations concerning identification and sources of compounds in environmental samples. The researchers take samples, identify the source apportionment of compounds, and provide data for use in prosecuting those who have broken particular laws. Environmental forensics methods for understanding the sources of materials include chemical and biological methods and approaches. This research also includes data mining and prediction in order to understand better what is happening in the environment.

Geodynamics Laboratory

The geodynamics group investigates the large-scale physical and chemical processes of the Earth’s surface, crust, and its interior through experiments, mechanical modeling, and the analyses of the composition of solid Earth and planetary materials. Areas of expertise include astronomy, remote sensing, rock magnetism, petrology, stratigraphy, and hydrology. Researchers study the mechanics of shear flow, surface runoff and groundwater flow, and the composition of meteorites,



synthetic planetary materials, and rocks derived from natural archives of Earth’s geodynamic evolution. The research laboratory facilitates measurements of the dynamics of fluids and melts, rock magnetic properties, whole rock geochemistry, sediment radioactivity, and mineralogy. An understanding of the natural processes in the planetary system addresses such important questions as the origin and history of the Earth and the solar system, the occurrence of earthquakes and volcanism, the origin and preservation of water and mineral resources, and the variability in the distribution of large polar ice masses and related sea-level effects.

Environmental Quality/ Remediation Laboratory

The transdisciplinary environmental quality and remediation research group is engaged in characterization and quantification of various physicochemical processes that determine the fate of inorganic and organic contaminants in soils and sediments and the relevant processes and interrelationships among them over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Long-term goals of this group, supported by the robust analytical facilities available, are to develop a comprehensive understanding of system behavior based on experimental and theoretical investigations, as well as to design control and remediation technologies, such as chemical, microbial, and phytoremediation methods to clean up contaminated environment, both sustainably and cost effectively. Researchers also estimate ecological and human health risk for environmental decision making, especially those involving protective and clean-up standards for contaminants already in the environment.

Earth Systems Laboratory

The Earth Systems and Climate Change research team examines how environmental changes induced by human activities can be quantified and separated from changes forced by naturally occurring mechanisms. Research activities include the monitoring of Earth’s surface processes from the ground, air, ocean, and space. Remote sensing tools, field measurements, and natural archives such as sediment and soil are used to record Earth’s regularly repeating cycles, positive and negative feedbacks, and abrupt events. These processes affect Earth’s surface temperature, the chemistry of the atmosphere and ocean, soil moisture, surface water systems, and the size and stability of ice sheets, which in turn affect societal communities through sea level rise and fall, the frequency and intensity of storms, the type and extent of vegetation, the availability of water resources, and changes in the geographic range of flora, fauna, and pathogens. The interconnections between Earth systems and humans will only increase as the human population grows and the magnitude and extent of climate change increases.



Other Laboratories

Computational Laboratory

The Computational Science research group in the CELS laboratories will focus on work in interdisciplinary areas where the principles of computer science are useful in proposing solutions to domain-specific problems. In the research projects addressed by the students and faculty working in these areas, new computer science techniques will be proposed, and existing ones will

be refined to address challenging scientific problems. The nature of the research will be such that it will make contributions to both computer science as well as the concerned domain(s). Some areas addressed here from a computer science perspective will be data mining, machine learning, image processing, human/computer interaction, and bioinformatics. Some domains of interest will include biology, environmental management, and chemistry. The projects in the Computational Science group will involve researchers from multiple departments bringing their expertise to provide cutting-edge solutions. This lab will be a dry lab with computers and other peripherals in cubicles and closed offices for faculty and students.

Remote Sensing Laboratory / Geographic Information Systems Laboratory

Geographic information (or geospatial) sciences make use of remote sensing data and geographic information systems (GIS) to address environmental problems at local to global scales. Remote sensing from satellites and aircraft provides source data for many kinds of geographic, environmental, and Earth Science investigations, while GIS combines locational information with associated attributes to manipulate and analyze information spatially. These capabilities are new and increasingly integrated into public life (e.g., cell phone GPS navigation and mapping), as well as enhancing research in physical, social, economic, and health sciences. The geospatial sciences are intrinsically transdisciplinary, requiring skills and knowledge in aspects of computer science (e.g., programming, data management), statistics and



geostatistics, physics (spectroscopy, atmospheric science, scattering theory), mathematics (modeling, minimization algorithms), and application-specific disciplines (e.g., ecology, forestry, hydrology, geology, and many others). Faculty in these labs have recognized expertise in remote sensing, GIS, geostatistics, terrestrial ecology, land use, urban geography, surface hydrology, geology, and physical geography. The Remote Sensing Laboratory has hosted international visiting scientists and postdoctoral researchers. It supports graduate and undergraduate research focused on mapping the physical structure of shrub and forest canopies and aboveground biomass in terrestrial ecosystems in environments as diverse as desert grasslands and Arctic tundra, with research programs supported by external grants from NASA.

Electron Microscopy Center

The Electron Microscopy Center houses two Hitachi scanning electron microscopes and one Hitachi transmission electron microscope, all equipped with X-ray microanalysis systems and support space for sample preparation. Since opening its doors in January 2009 the

Electron Microscopy Center has been heavily used by faculty and students from across the College of Science and Mathematics. With support from the National Science Foundation, Ocean Drilling Program, and Antarctic Drilling Program, CSAM researchers have used the facilities to analyze nanotubes, microfossils, deep crustal materials, and synthetic meteorites. The Electron Microscopy Center offers a variety of courses that allow students to learn and implement electron microscopy techniques, including Scanning Electron Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy, Histology, X-ray Microanalysis, and Instrumental Environmental Analysis.

Incubators

Incubator Laboratories

Two laboratories will be devoted to acting as incubators for start-up science-based companies and offering shared research with newly starting companies. These laboratories will be created through the joint vision of members of industry. These incubators will allow our students to become comfortable with how industry laboratories work and allow faculty to work side by side with industry scientists on strongly applied research. These laboratories will also prepare our students for applied externships by modeling what they will find in industry.



Pharmaceutical Incubator Laboratory

The pharmaceutical incubator laboratory will have transdisciplinary capabilities to study a variety of diseases, with flexibility to respond to emerging clinical needs. Such a laboratory will share students as interns, as well as host pharmaceutical researchers. The facilities will reflect state-of-the-art technology employed at major pharmaceutical corporations. This technology will include facilities for molecular modeling, chemistry and biochemistry, and cellular and molecular biology. Successful research programs leading to the discovery of a novel therapeutic agent could lead to collaboration with a pharmaceutical company to develop the agent for a new drug application (NDA) to the Food and Drug Administration.

Environmental Incubator Laboratory

The environmental incubator laboratory will be generic in nature and nurture new approaches to environmental management, such as reclamation of dredged sediments, analysis, and cleansing of contaminated soils, consideration of brown field restoration, etc. CSAM has already built relationships with environmentally concerned companies, research groups, and government agencies concerned with these topics. New approaches by start-up companies dealing with contaminated sediments, water purification, fire suppression, etc., could find their way into this facility.

Lecture and Seminar Rooms

Science Lecture Hall

The science lecture hall is 130-seat space dedicated to programmatic lectures, small conferences, and classes.

Seminar Rooms Smaller seminar rooms will house important sessions that demand a more intimate environment, including upper-level and graduate courses, breakout sessions from larger conferences, and small workshops.

The College of Science and Mathematics

A Decade of Progress

In the decade ending in 2009, all measures of activity in CSAM increased markedly, reflective of the University’s increased emphasis on research as a significant part of a healthy science education program.

Undergraduate enrollment in CSAM rose 44 percent, from 1,221 to 1,764, while graduate enrollment rose 42 percent, from 269 to 384. The number of full-time faculty rose 23 percent, from 76 to 94 (in 2010 this number rose to well over 100); 61 of these faculty were hired during this period (as of 2010 this number rose to 71). The number of graduate assistants doubled, from 28 to 56.

External grant support more than tripled, from $1,218,475 to $3,869,242 with over $4M in 2010.



Research laboratory square footage rose 128 percent, from 9,995 to 22,830 square feet, while non-laboratory square footage was up 112 percent, from 39,795 to 44,946 square feet.

Students/ Research Opportunities

Each year in April the University hosts a student research symposium. This began within CSAM and through the college’s invitation now includes students from the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In spring of 2011 the symposium will be campus wide with all colleges and schools participating. CSAM regularly has well over 100 student presentations reflecting the active research opportunities within the college for students. These opportunities reflect student participation on funded grants, independent studies, internships, externships, cooperative education, and volunteerism. With important financial awards from Roche and Merck, 2010–2011 will see the first cohort of Science Honors Innovation Students in CSAM. These students, of the highest caliber at the University, are required to produce an undergraduate honors research thesis that will yield a peer-reviewed publication.

External Support Industry and private support continues to grow significantly, indicating major support for our research and education programs. In addition to the bequest from the estate of Margaret and Herman Sokol, substantial support from industrial partners and government agencies (e.g., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Merck, Novartis, PSEG, Roche; DOE, EPA, NASA, NIH, NOAA, NSF, ONR, USDA) also indicates a robust vote of confidence in our progress.

Faculty Ninety-nine percent of the faculty members in the College of Science and Mathematics hold the highest degree available. Our faculty are active scholars, publishing in the top peer-reviewed journals, and receiving grant support from major federal, state, and private agencies.

New Degree Programs

In this decade, the following degree programs have been established: • PhD in Environmental Management • EdD in Mathematics Pedagogy/Mathematics Education • MA in Teaching Middle Grade Mathematics • MS in Molecular Biology • MS/MBA in Chemistry and Chemical Business • MS in Pharmaceutical Biochemistry • BS/MS in Aquatic and Coastal Sciences • BS in Information Technology • BS in Science Informatics



Graduates/ Outcomes

CSAM graduates are found in every conceivable science position within the pharmaceutical industry. We are proud of our well over 300 alumni now working in the industry, from research chemists new to the laboratory to the highest levels of administration. Similarly our environmental students can be found in the NJ DEP, consulting companies, industry, and academia.

Advisory Council The CSAM Advisory Council has leaders from industry who help guide the College forward with a very real-world approach. The Council is composed of top executives from major pharmaceutical and environmental organizations. The Council was instrumental in helping design a plan for forumulating transdisciplinary research teams for CELS. In addition the Council has an ad hoc committee charged with reviewing the plans for the new facility and enhancing fundraising opportunities.

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